The World's Greatest Buildings: Masterpieces of Architecture & Engineering

by H.J. Cowan, Ruth Greenstein, John Haskell

They speak to a culture’s aspirations and to its imagination, begging the question, “How did they do that?” This unusual volume is a fact-filled, full color field guide to some of the most intriguing... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0737000821
• ISBN13: 9780737000825
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Time Life Medical
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 2.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 11.7"

Customer Reviews

love that book

it's an awesome book for everyone; those who are interesting in architecture and for those who don't know they are. after reading that book and looking at the awesome photographs, you will be :) great for your book shelf.

A Visual Primer of the Buildings You Should Know

This book covers 100 great buildings, giving each one two pages and a few images. There are all the obvious choices for great structures--the Great Wall, the Empire State Building, Versaille, etc. What I enjoyed the most was filling in the cultural gaps in my knowledge: 26 of the 100 structures/buildings were unfamiliar to me. I felt much more informed, and several of these places I plan to do a bit of research on, such as Krak des Chevaliers and Van Eetvelde House. I also enjoyed recognizing each of the 74 structures I was familar with and learning a bit more about some of these familar places as well. The book provides a quick list of key facts such as builder, date, style, material, etc. that makes this a handy book to have around for reference. The pictures are beautifully presented, but due to having only two pages, there are so few of them that I kept longing to go and reread other books or material on the great buildings that I loved, such as Fallingwater or the Alhambra. This is a good read that may inspire you to look for more detailed information on the buildings you find especially interesting.

As beautiful as it is informative

GREATEST BUILDINGS lends itself to both private reflections and public discussion. It appeals to almost anyone interested in the subject of buildings or architecture from a historical, engineering or aesthetic perspective. The color photographs and structural renderings are detailed and wonderfully realized. Each building is covered in two pages with a background of sort along with any unique engineering or structural problem that was involved. The selections are a good cross-section of cultures.I have yet to see someone pick this up without perusing and making a comment or two. Color, extra long, thick paper.

Great Guide to the world's greatest architectural designs!

This book is indeed a masterpiece and it is great for someone who is studying to be an engineer or is interested in architecture. It is fantastic and has everything from the Lovely Louvre to the palace at Petra, from the Great Golden Gate to the construction of the Chrysler. It shows fine examples of art deco, modern, classical, Greek, Islamic etc. architectural wonders. It not only explains and shows the construction of these great buildings, but for certain buildings it also shows their plan, it's legends, along with information about who built it, why did they build it, whom did it build it for, when was it built, and where it is. It also has sections showing the greatest styles of architecture ever used along with a series of historic sites in the world. All in all this is a fantastic and very useful guide to the masterpieces of Architecture and Engineering.